Oracle Application Server 10g: J2EE Deployment and Administration

537 Pages·2007·5.8 MB·English

Oracle Application Server 10g: J2EE Deployment and Administration
by Michael Wessler et al.
Apress © 2004 (596 pages)
ISBN:1590592352
Ideal for anyone wanting to stay ahead in the world of Oracle’s application
servers, this focused, no-frills guide will help you get J2EE applications up
and running on 10g.
Table of Contents
Oracle Application Server 10g—J2EE Deployment and Administration
Chapter 1 - Overview of Features, Editions, and Releases
Chapter 2 - Developing with Oracle 10g As
Chapter 3 - OC4J Installation and Runtime Behavior
Chapter 4 - General Server Configuration
Chapter 5 - Configuring JNDI and JDBC Services
Chapter 6 - Configuring Java Message Service
Chapter 7 - Security
Chapter 8 - Using JavaMail and Java APIs for XML
Chapter 9 - J2EE Application Deployment
Chapter 10 - Web Applications
Chapter 11 - Enterprise JavaBeans
Chapter 12 - J2EE Connectors
Chapter 13 - Configuring Web Services
Chapter 14 - Application Clients
Chapter 15 - Architecture and Deployment Topologies
Chapter 16 - Installation and Administration
Chapter 17 - Configuring J2EE Services
Chapter 18 - Deploying Applications
Chapter 19 - Configuring Web Caching
Chapter 20 - Configuring Enterprise Security
Chapter 21 - Configuring Clustering and Failover
Appendix A - Server Configuration Files and Document Type Declaration
Appendix B - Deployment Descriptors and Document Type Declaration
Appendix C - Command-Line Utility Usage
Appendix D - Debugging Tips
List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Sidebars
Oracle Application Server 10g—J2EE Deployment
and Administration
MICHAEL WESSLER WITH
ERIN MULDER,
ROB HARROP, AND
JAN MACHACEK

Copyright © 2004 by Michael Wessler, Erin Mulder, Rob Harrop, and Jan Machacek
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To my grandmother Alma Johnson; for always being incredibly supportive and loving.
—Michael Wessler
About the Authors

MICHAEL WESSLER received his BS in computer technology from Purdue University in West
Lafayette, IN. He is an Oracle Certified Database Administrator for Oracle 8 and 8i, an Oracle
Certified Web Administrator for 9iAS, and a 10g Database Technician. He has administered
Oracle databases on Windows NT, and various flavors of UNIX and Linux, including clustered
Oracle Parallel Server (OPS) environments. He also performs database and SQL/PLSQL tuning
for applications. Michael has worked in many IT shops ranging from small dot-com Internet
startups to large governmental agencies and corporations. Michael, who is currently consulting at
the Department of Defense, is a technical manager for Perpetual Technologies, Inc.
In addition to Oracle DBA consulting, Michael has worked extensively as an Oracle 9iAS web
application server administrator. Currently, he manages multiple web applications for the
Department of Defense and consults at various government agencies and in the private sector.
Michael also frequently lectures on 9iAS and teaches Oracle performance-tuning classes.
Michael can be reached at [email protected] or via his website at
http://mike.wessler.name.
Michael is the author of Oracle DBA on Unix and Linux (SAMS, 2002). He has also coauthored
Oracle Unleashed, Second Edition (SAMS, 1997), Unix Primer Plus, Third Edition (Waite Group
Press, 2000), COBOL Unleashed (SAMS, 1998), and Unix Unleashed, Fourth edition (SAMS
2002).
Michael Wessler authored Chapters 9, 15–21, and the appendixes.

ERIN MULDER has been working with Java since the earliest releases. In recent years, she has
helped deliver many successful Java and J2EE applications, including real-time energy usage
visualization, network management for video-on-demand servers, financial market analysis,
federal government accounting, and contracts management. She uses a combination of open
source and commercial tools, and specializes in making them work well together. Erin has also
been a technical editor for several publications and has made presentations on a variety of topics
at Java User Groups and JavaOne conferences. She is a software architect with Chariot
Solutions, a Java consulting company in Philadelphia.
Erin Mulder authored Chapters 3 and 4 and contributed material to Chapters 1–14.
ROB HARROP is the lead software architect of UK-based development house, Cake Solutions
Limited (www.cakesolutions.net). At Cake Solutions, Rob leads a team of six developers
who work on enterprise solutions for a variety of clients including the Department of Trade and
Industry, the Metropolitan Police, and NUS Services Limited. Rob and Cake Solutions specialize
in both .NET and J2EE-based development, and Rob has been involved with .NET since the
alpha stages.
Rob is the author of Pro Jakarta Velocity: From Professional to Expert (Apress, not yet
published), and coauthor of Pro Jakarta Struts, Second Edition (Apress, 2004) and Pro Visual
Studio .NET (Apress, not yet published).
In his limited spare time, Rob enjoys playing with different technologies, his current favorites
being Groovy and aspect-oriented programming. Rob is a committer on the open-source Spring
project (www.springframework.org), a Java and .NET application framework built around the
principle of Dependency Injection. When not sitting in front of the computer, Rob usually has his
head buried in a book and prefers the fantasy parodies of Terry Pratchett's Discworld.
Rob Harrop authored Chapters 6–8 and 13, and contributed material to Chapters 1, 2, and 5.

JAN MACHACEK is lead programmer of UK-based software company Cake Solutions Limited,
where he has helped design and implement enterprise-level applications for a variety of UK- and
US-based clients. In his spare time, he enjoys exploring software architectures, nonprocedural
and AI programming, and playing with computer hardware.
As a proper computer geek, Jan loves the Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings series. Jan lives
in Manchester in the UK and can be reached at [email protected].
Jan Machacek authored Chapter 12 and contributed material to Chapters 10, 13, and 14.
About the Technical Reviewers
JER SMITH entered the high-technology world in 1993 when a friend convinced him to install
Linux .99 and OS/2 2.1 over Windows 3.1 on his Packard Bell computer. In Salt Lake City, UT, he
owns Anagnosis (not-not-know) Consulting, a system integration and UNIX education company.
He's currently working with the Department of Veteran's Affairs building's next generation Java-
based clinical information systems.
JAKOB HAMMER-JAKOBSEN (born 1965) holds an MA in economic and political science and
an MA in computer science. As a student, Jakob was developing student administrative programs
for the university in Oracle version 5 and 6. After finishing school Jakob joined the original
European distributor of Oracle TPI International, and worked as a system programmer for five
years at large-scale Danish and European Oracle installations.
For three years Jakob was a member of Oracle Premium Services in Denmark, which was part of
Cary Millsap's system performance group network, as a principal senior analyst. After leaving
Oracle in 2001, he joined Miracle A/S where he has been working with system architecture,
optimization, and programming for the last four years. Jakob also spent a year in Sydney,
Australia, where he founded Miracle Australia Pty Limited. He is a member of the OakTable
network.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the following people who have been a wonderful help in writing this book as
well as in my career.
Jim Burcham, for getting me involved in Oracle application server and 9iAS in the beginning (at
least, I think I thank him for that!). His guidance and logical engineering approach frequently
"saves the day" for multiple systems and helps me solve many problems.
Tige Chastain for his invaluable help in the arena of operating systems and networking. He's
always the guy I call first for help when I have tough Linux and UNIX questions.
Dan Wilson for showing me how to look at problems at a deeper integrated systems level rather
than just looking at problems on the surface. His ability to architect and size systems has made
my life easier.
Ryan Stevens, Ron Plew, and Chris Zeis from Perpetual Technologies for providing multiple
opportunities in the technical consulting world. Thanks guys!
My family, especially my parents Jon and Barb, for always being supportive of my education,
career, and writing.
Jamie Miller, for her remarkable support and assistance while I was writing this.
To my good friends Erik and Kalynn (and now Luke!), John and Dana, Jeff and Lindsey, TC and
Colleen, and Ben, for being understanding whenever I disappear for a few months to write.
I also would like to thank the wonderful professionals I've been able to work with at Apress: Tony
Davis, Beth Christmas, Mark Nigara, and Kelly Winquist.
—Michael Wessler
I would like to thank Mom, Dad, the folks at Chariot, and especially Aaron for all the support and
encouragement. I would also like to thank Tony Davis, Mark Nigara, Kelly Winquist, and Beth
Christmas.
—Erin Mulder
Chapter 1: Overview of Features, Editions, and
Releases
Overview
So you're ready to start evaluating Oracle Application Server 10g, but find yourself lost in a sea of
editions, releases, and non-J2EE features. In this chapter, we'll cut through the marketing hype
and look at exactly what each version has to offer. In particular, we'll cover the following:
(cid:131) How to choose between the Java, Standard, and Enterprise Editions
(cid:131) How to make sense of the release numbers
(cid:131) Which J2EE technologies are standard in all application servers
(cid:131) Which features are specific to Oracle 10g AS
(cid:131) Some of the non-J2EE features in 10g AS such as Oracle HTTP Server (OHS), Oracle
Internet Directory (OID), Single Sign-On (SSO), Web Cache, and Clustering

Choosing an Edition
Like most web application servers, Oracle 10g AS is available in a number of different editions,
ranging from a small development-only J2EE server, to the full-fledged Enterprise installation. All
of these include the basic J2EE containers (called Oracle 10g AS Containers for J2EE or OC4J),
which provide support for Servlets, JavaServer Pages (JSPs), Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs) and
other standard J2EE technologies. Other, larger and more expensive versions include additional
non-J2EE features such as Oracle's modified Apache web server, longtime Oracle products such
as Portal, Forms, Reports, and Discoverer, Oracle's Identity Management products such as
Oracle Internet Directory and SSO, and advanced features for high-performance and high-
availability sites such as Web Cache and Clustering. There's no one size fits all so it's important
to tailor the edition to the needs of your application. Here's a list of the editions of 10g AS that are
available:
(cid:131) OC4J Standalone (Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE). This pure-Java,
development-oriented edition supports all of the J2EE technologies with very little
overhead. Instead of formal management or monitoring tools, it relies on commandline
and file-based configuration. Its small installation size and memory footprint make it
ideal for developer workstations. However, it's not intended for use in production
systems. If you do choose to use it in production, you still must purchase one of the
three editions described in this list. This version of the product is the primary focus of
the development and deployment chapters of this book (Chapters 2–14).
(cid:131) Java Edition. This low-end commercial edition includes all of the OC4J Standalone
features and adds a web-based management tool, a more robust HTTP server (based
on the open-source Apache web server), support for non-J2EE object-relational
mapping through TopLink, and five licenses for JDeveloper, a full-featured Java IDE.
(cid:131) Standard Edition. This edition includes everything found in the Java edition and adds
Portal, SSO, and Content Management capabilities. While the Java Edition is well
suited for independent J2EE applications, these more advanced features allow you to
link lots of different applications across an enterprise system, presenting one common
view to users (often through an Enterprise Information Portal or EIP).
(cid:131) Enterprise Edition. This high-end edition includes everything found in the Standard
Edition and adds web caching (Oracle Web Cache), enterprise integration (including
Oracle SSO), directory services (OID), data analysis and reporting (Business
Intelligence through Oracle Reports and Discoverer), and Oracle Forms. Additionally,
this version provides the ability to implement clustered J2EE instances fronted by Web
Cache, which provides the maximum load-balancing and high-availability benefits.
These features give you additional scalability, interoperability and real-time analysis
while being the deployment vehicle for longtime Oracle products such as Forms,
Reports, and Discoverer. This Enterprise Edition generally requires an infrastructure
database (provided with the product installation) to support the advanced features. It's
this product that is the focus of the administration chapters of this book (Chapters 15–
21).
The following table gives you a quick comparison of the cost, size, and features of each edition,
at the time of writing (June 2004). Each of the features listed will be described in more detail later
in this chapter.
Table 1-1: Comparison of Oracle 10g AS Editions
Feature OC4J Java Standard Enterprise
Standalone Edition Edition Edition
List price Included with $5,000/CP $10,000/CPU $20,000/CPU
each of the U
other editions
Download size 28 MB Over 500 Not Over 2 GB
MB individually
downloadable
Configuration Manual Enterprise Enterprise Enterprise
type Mgr Mgr Mgr
J2EE Yes Yes Yes Yes
containers

HTTP server Yes Yes Yes

JDeveloper Yes Yes Yes

TopLink Yes Yes Yes

Application Yes Yes Yes
Server Control

Portal Yes Yes

Single Sign-On Yes Yes

Content Yes Yes
Management

Web Caching Yes

Integration Yes

Oracle Internet Yes
Directory

Discoverer Yes

Reports Service Yes

Personalization Yes
Table 1-1: Comparison of Oracle 10g AS Editions
Feature OC4J Java Standard Enterprise
Standalone Edition Edition Edition

Wireless Yes
Deciding Which Features You Need
In the end, the Standard and Enterprise offerings are just convenient package deals on a number
of extra, (non-J2EE) add-on products. Thus, when choosing an edition, your first step should be
to decide which of these add-on products you actually need. Then you should compare the
bundled Oracle options with competing products from other vendors to determine which are the
most appropriate and cost effective for your needs.
For example, if you'll be running a number of intranet applications within Oracle 10g AS and
would like users to be able to use the same username and password for each of them, then you'll
probably be interested in SSO functionality. In this case, one option is to purchase the Oracle 10g
AS Standard Edition and use the built-in Oracle SSO features. However, if Oracle SSO doesn't
meet your needs, then you can always stay with the Oracle 10g AS Java Edition and buy a third-
party SSO integration product such as RSA ClearTrust.
One important factor to consider is your overall commitment to the Oracle 10g AS platform. Pure
J2EE applications are very portable, but as you begin integrating additional Oracle products, you
may become "locked in" to Oracle 10g AS and find it harder to migrate to other application
servers. If you think that you may eventually move to another vendor, like BEA or IBM, then it
may be worthwhile to choose third-party add-on products that integrate well with multiple
application servers. On the other hand, if you're sure that your applications will be running on
Oracle for years to come, then the integrated management and discount pricing of the Oracle
add-on products may save a lot of time and money. This is especially true for companies that
already use Oracle for their database. One of the compelling arguments for choosing Oracle 10g
AS, if you already use Oracle databases, is the tight integration of the database with the
application server, and the performance and administrative benefits that this can bring.
The following criteria in Table 1-2 may be helpful when making your decision.
Table 1-2: Tips for Choosing an Oracle 10g AS Edition
If You're Building and Deploying… Consider…
One J2EE application Java Edition
Several unrelated J2EE applications Java Edition
Corporate intranet or portal Standard Edition (or third-party portal and
SSO products)
Applications that integrate with many Enterprise Edition (or third-party integration
external systems or business partners products)
Oracle PL/SQL Web Toolkit Standard or Enterprise Edition
Oracle Portal Standard or Enterprise Edition
Oracle Forms, Reports, Discoverer Enterprise Edition using Oracle Business
Intelligence option
High-traffic e-commerce sites Enterprise Edition using Oracle Web Cache